LUKE 1:39-55
39In those days Mary set out and
went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40where
she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
41When Elizabeth heard Mary's
greeting, the child leaped in her womb.
And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42and
exclaimed with a loud cry,
"Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of
your womb. 43And why has this
happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44For
as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for
joy. 45And blessed is she who believed
that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord."
46And Mary said,
"My soul magnifies the LORD,
47and my spirit rejoices in God my
Savior,
48for he has looked with favor on
the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49for the Mighty One has done great
things for me,
and holy is his name.
50His mercy is for those who fear
him
from generation to generation.
51He has shown strength with his
arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52He has brought down the powerful
from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
53he has filled the hungry with
good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
54He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55according to the promise he made
to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
***
Perhaps this is not the Sunday to tell you I don’t believe in
the virgin birth, but perhaps, this is exactly the Sunday to tell you because
when given this scripture, a non virgin Mary, lifts up Mary, lifts up God, and
lifts us up in a tangible yet unbelievable and immensely sacred way. It also
lifts up the story of Mary in way that is congruent with who Jesus would come
to be.
Before you stop listening, before you write this sermon off, I
will give you the scriptural basis for this interpretation. In the Greek, one
of the Bible’s original languages the word we now translate virgin, also meant young.
That is the the interpretation I prefer, young.
I prefer Mary not be perfect. I prefer her not to have spoken to
the angel Gabriel with complete devotion and servitude. I prefer Mary to have
been humanly scared, and humanly unsure. I prefer Mary to have been a sinner,
rather than a saint.
With this view, I imagine Mary deeply ashamed, going with haste
to Elizabeth. I wonder what she thought about on that journey. I wonder what
she felt. I wonder if she grieved the life she thought she’d have. Was Joseph
planning to quietly dismiss her, or would he make a scene, so that everyone
knew. I wonder if she was saying goodbye to her wedding day, her dress, the
banquet meal surrounded by family and friends. I wonder if she wished in the
least for a shotgun wedding, that Joseph would still take her as his bride. I
wonder if when she really looked at it, if she thought her life was over. I
wonder about her regrets. I wonder in such a patriarchal society, how much
choice she had. I wonder if she saw the injustice of her lack of choices, or if
she was her own worst critic. Did she suppose the angel was but a dream, or her
mind going delusional. I wonder what she thought about, and what she felt on
the way.
I imagine it was with a deep sense of shame that Mary sought
Elizabeth. Mary was 13 and pregnant out of wedlock. I wonder if she ran away to
Elizabeth, not knowing what to do, wondering if Elizabeth would hide her, and
keep her secret. My own fifteen year old birthmother told no one I was inside
her until her 9th month, when her mother finally asked. My birthmother went to
the library and read books on pregnancy, but besides the words on the page
which named her reality, no one else knew. Not my birthfather, not her very own
mother, no friend, she was completely alone. I imagine Mary feeling the same
weight of this secret. I imagine her not telling her parents. I am thankful
that Mary had a place to go. I wonder what was it about Elizabeth that made her
a safe person to confide in.
I pray it was not the case that Mary’s parents shipped her off
to the hill country, the rural town where her cousin Elizabeth lived, where no
one would know. Elizabeth could have twins, instead of just John. There are too
many stories of this happening, of pregnant unwed women being shipped off. An
older friend of mine was shipped off to another state, to a house run by nuns.
Her family neither visited, nor wrote, nor talked about it openly afterward. It
was my friend’s shame to carry in silence. There are too many stories of a woman’s
shame being increased like this, and I do not doubt the practice was alive and
well in Biblical times. I wonder if Mary feared Elizabeth’s reaction. Elizabeth
was an old woman, a preacher’s wife, pregnant in wedlock after trying for so so
long. Not only was Mary carrying the shame of pregnancy out of wedlock, but she
had easily become pregnant when Elizabeth had waited so long. Would Elizabeth
be both judgmental and jealous?
My pastor friend, Marci became a birthmother in college. The
people whose judgment she feared more than anyone were church people. Elizabeth
is church people, she is married to the preacher, or in those days, the
priest. Mary must enter the preacher,
Zechariah’s house. Perhaps Mary’s parents thought it would be like the convent
of nuns caring for unwed mothers. But I hope that those convents, were like
Marci’s church in college, were like Elizabeth’s greeting.
At the mere sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth was filled with
the Holy Spirit. The child in Elizabeth’s womb leapt. And Elizabeth called
shame filled Mary blessed, called her unwed, 13 year old pregnancy blessed,
called Mary’s burden bringing visit a blessing, calls Mary’s unbelievable story
about angels a blessing of faith. In that moment, Elizabeth has taken away
Mary’s shame and called her blessed. In that moment society as they knew it,
and as we know it, was turned upside down. A thirteen year old, unwed, pregnant
girl becomes the mother of our Lord. And isn’t that how Jesus would have it be?
The same Jesus who would be born in a manger, who would be the son of a
carpenter, who would grow up in Nazareth, who would not throw the first stone,
who would eat with sinners and tax collectors, who would heal the sick and the
lame, who would ride into town on a donkey, and would die beside thieves. Isn’t
an unwed, pregnant, thirteen-year-old girl who Jesus would pick? Isn’t it?
Isn’t it this, not
Mary perfection, but her human lowliness, that makes Mary the perfect bearer of
God. Isn’t this, Mary’s sinfulness, that makes Mary a saint. I believe it is
this, and I believe that it extends not just to Mary, but to us, to the
humanness, and the lowliness in each of us, that in those places God will
dwell, and be born in us. This is the good news. This is to what Mary responds,
"My soul magnifies the LORD,
47and my spirit rejoices in God my
Savior,
48for he has looked with favor on
the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49for the Mighty One has done great
things for me,
and holy is his name.
50His mercy is for those who fear
him
from generation to generation.
51He has shown strength with his
arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52He has brought down the powerful
from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
53he has filled the hungry with
good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
54He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55according to the promise he made
to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
